Armageddon (20 page)

* * * *

Lena glanced at her watch as she settled in the chair across from the receptionist.

There were two applicants in front of her and she couldn’t help but worry that he’d decide on one of them and terminate the interviews, or decide to wait until after lunch to finish up with interviews. After sitting for a few minutes, she got up and asked the receptionist where the ladies room was.

The woman gestured with her pen toward a door down the corridor. “If he calls you and you aren’t here you probably won’t get another chance for an interview.”

Lena didn’t try to hide her dismay. “It won’t take me but a few minutes, but I get nervous about interviews.”

The woman shrugged.

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Moving quickly down the corridor, Lena ducked into the ladies room. After a quick check to make sure all of the stalls were empty, she moved to the waste receptacle, pulled the liner out and bent down to retrieve the pistol at the bottom. Shoving it into the purse she carried slung over her shoulder, she replaced the bag and headed out again.

The reception area was empty of other applicants when Lena returned. “Has he called me yet?”

The woman shook her head. Breathing a sigh of relief, Lena returned to the seat she’d claimed before. Outwardly, she felt sure she didn’t display any more jitters than might be expected of someone about to do an interview. Inwardly, she felt sick to her stomach with nerves.

I can do this
, she told herself for the hundredth time.

“Ms. Brinson?”

Lena jumped when it suddenly dawned on her that the receptionist was speaking to her.

“You can go in now.”

Lena’s heart seemed to leap right out of her chest and into her throat. Nodding a little jerkily, she straightened her skirt and headed toward the door the woman had indicated. Another woman came out as she reached it. Catching the door before it closed, Lena went in and stood nervously near the door.

The man behind the desk didn’t look like a monster, but then that was the trouble with monsters. They so rarely looked like what they actually were.

“Have a seat,” he said pleasantly.

Lena sat, more because her knees felt as weak as water than because she wanted to. Lifting a film from his desk, the man settled to studying her resume as if he had never seen it before.

Lena focused on trying to breathe easy and steady her nerves.

He’d just dropped the film to his desk and turned to speak to her when the alarm Lena had been waiting for went off.

Attention! Attention! This is not a drill. This is not a drill. There is a bomb in
the building. Please proceed to the nearest exit and leave the building in an orderly
fashion as quickly as possible.

A breathless hush seemed to fall over the entire building. Lena counted to three and reached into her purse as she rose from her chair. Almost at the same instant, bedlam cut loose beyond the walls of Cameron Mitchell’s office. The sound of stampeding feet rose to a deafening roar.

Lena leveled the pistol at Mitchell as he surged out of his chair.

He stared at it blankly.

“For crimes against humanity,” Lena said coldly, pointing the pistol directly at the man’s chest and pulling the trigger.

The blast caught him directly in the heart, stopping it instantly. His mouth gaped.

He clasped his hands to his chest and fell back into his chair, staring at Lena as his eyes slowly glazed.

Feeling ill and faint, Lena stepped up to the desk and looked at him. “That was for everybody you’ve murdered you cold blooded bastard!” Taking aim at his head, she issued the coupe de grace. “And that was for Morris!” she added, controlling the wobble in her chin with an effort.

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She’d scarcely fired the second shot when the window behind Mitchell’s desk exploded inward, showering the room with glass. Instinctively, Lena threw her hands up to protect herself. When she peered between her fingers, she saw Dax standing over Mitchell, checking for a pulse. When he turned to look at her, his lips curled into a slow grin. “You are the most amazing woman, Lena Marie,” he murmured, holding his arm out to her.

Relieved beyond measure to see him, Lena hurried to him, throwing her arms around his neck.

“Hold tight, baby girl,” he murmured as he tightened his arms around her and moved back toward the window he’d entered.

Lena closed her eyes as the pulley yanked both of them through the window, gasping to catch her breath as they swung back and forth forty stories above the ground.

By the time they were finally hauled through the airlock, Lena was quaking like a leaf, half frozen from the ‘ride’.

Unhooking his harness from the pulley as soon as they were on the ship, Dax strode to the com unit. “We’re in. Kick it in the ass before they figure out we aren’t a rescue unit!”

Apparently the pilot took the order to heart. The ship’s rockets fired and the ship shot forward so fast Lena and Dax both nearly ended up in the floor. When he’d steadied the two of them, he hit the com unit again. “Rodriguez, you smart ass!”

Uttering something midway between a cough and a chuckle, Rodriquez responded innocently, “Yes, sir, captain sir!”

“When you hit the ten mile marker, lay down fire.”

Slipping his arm around her waist, Dax walked Lena across the hanger deck and then guided her up the tube to the bridge. Rodriguez threw a grin over his shoulder as they reached the deck. “Top to bottom? Or bottom to top?”

“Top to bottom,” Dax responded promptly.

“You heard the man,” Rodriguez said into his headset. “Take it down.”

As they watched the vid screen, two missiles shot from somewhere beneath their view and straight toward the building they’d just left. Another pair followed closely behind the first two, and then a half a dozen more, spaced as the first were. The first two impacted with the top of the building, demolishing it instantly. The crowd below the building scattered for cover. The second two hit three floors below, blasting debris in every direction and the top settled.

“We’ve got company,” Rodriguez announced as the third and fourth pair impacted with the building.

“Then it’s time to go,” Dax said. “They sub orbital. Take us out beyond their range.”

He glanced down at Lena. “Are you all right?”

She couldn’t help but smile. “Yes.”

Catching her hand, he led her back to the tube. “I think you should let Mel have a look at you.”

She thought it over. “No, really, I’m all right.”

He frowned, but he didn’t press her any further. Without another word, he started down the tube. Lena watched him a moment and climbed after him.

He stepped off when he reached the crew level, slipping an arm around her waist

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and walking with her to his cabin.

“Is it over?” Lena wondered out loud, amazed that in the end, it had been so easy.

Dax glanced at her. “I doubt we’re completely out of the woods yet. We’ll have to track down his network and shut it down.”

When they’d reached his cabin, Lena moved into his arms, wrapping her arms around his waist. He stroked her back soothingly. “Are you sure you’re all right?”

“Mmmhmm.”

“I shouldn’t have let you talk me in to letting you go in there.”

She pulled away to look up at him. “I needed to go. Besides, you wouldn’t have gotten past the front door.”

He shrugged, but didn’t argue the point. Instead he pulled her close again. “We could’ve found an assassin--a trained assassin.”

“I really am going to be ok with this,” Lena murmured. “I’m not nearly as delicate as you and Nigel seem to think.”

“Maybe not, baby girl, but killing is something a lot of people have a problem with, no matter the provocation.”

“Morris is dead because of that man. Hundreds, maybe thousands more than that.

All I feel is relief that he can’t do that to anybody else.”

His arms tightened around her. “I’m thinking about retiring,” he said tentatively.

Lena pulled away and looked up at his face. “Seriously?”

“Very seriously.”

A smile curled her lips. “Where are we retiring to?”

He stared at her for several moments and finally swallowed thickly. “You’d go with me?”

“Where ever,” she said promptly.

He drew in a ragged breath. “I love you, Lena Marie.”

“I know.”

He chuckled. “Just I know?”

“I already told you I loved you,” she reminded him with a smile. “And you said,

‘move your ass, baby girl!’ That’s when I knew you loved me, too.”

The End

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